A West Vancouver Police Officer Sexted Domestic Abuse Victims

A police officer in West Vancouver resigned after sending naked images to several women he met on duty—one of which was a victim of domestic abuse.

On top of that, the officer would systematically pursue a woman that he met on duty. The allegations, which were first reported on by the North Shore News, are laid out in a recent report by the Office of the Police Complaints Commissioner. The quarterly report came out over the weekend and says the officer, who isn’t named, used police property, including cell phones and computers, to correspond with the woman. The behaviour began in 2011.

The systematic behaviour of the officer was so severe, that, in the conclusion of the report, the Disciplinary Authority handling the case wrote that doing anything but firing the officer would be “unworkable [and] would bring the administration of police discipline into disrepute, would significantly harm the reputation of the police department and policing in general, and would not serve the public interest.”

In total, the report outlines 25 misconduct charges against the officer. These include the officer pursuing “an inappropriate relationship with the complainant on a domestic dispute he had attended” and using “his position as a police officer to pursue a personal relationship with a female who had reported being harassed by her estranged husband.” One allegation reads that the officer “used departmental work cellphones and computers to send communications, including a naked photo of himself, to the vulnerable domestic violence unit client.”

In total, out of the 25 allegations, “ten were associated to calls for service that the police officer had attended.”

“Of particular note, four involved domestic violence issues, two of which were considered high risk,” reads the report. “Three of the remaining five women included women who were associated to individuals known to be involved with organized crime groups and illegal drug trafficking.”

One frequent occurrence in these misconduct reports was the officer issuing tickets to the woman he was interested in and use the tickets to contact them. In some cases, the officer would drop the tickets but continue pursuing the woman. In other situations, he would convince the woman he was advocating for their tickets or suspensions to be dropped. He would also use cop databases to find information of women he was interested in and then contact them.

Out of all these allegations, the Discipline Authority who analyzed the case against the officer found that 11 of the allegations were worthy of firing the officer while the other 14 were worth five days suspensions. The police department wouldn’t be able to fire the officer, though, as he stepped down prior to the conclusion of the investigation.

“The Discipline Authority determined that collectively, the police officer’s behaviour was the antithesis of what the police community and public would expect from a police officer,” reads the report. “The vulnerability of the females who were the subject of the police officer’s attention, particularly when considering our current understanding of sexism, power and culture was significantly aggravating.”

Speaking to the CBC, WVPD department spokesperson Const. Jeff Palmer reiterated the report's findings, calling the actions and behaviour of the officer a “huge disappointment.” "The vulnerability of the females who were subject of this police officer's attention is a particularly aggravating feature of this.”

A earlier version of this article said the story was first reported by the CBC, it was actually first reported by the North Shore News. The story has been corrected.

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